Fruit and veg gaps

Callistemon
From your link. 30,000 HGV tests were lost last year because of covid That puts a different slant on things.

My mornings work from my allotment no shortages for me ?

Delicious Bluebelle. I love fresh new broad beans.

I haven’t seen any shortages at all - outer SW London. We mostly shop at Asda, with lesser forays to M&S and Waitrose.

Not problems here either. We use Lidl as our corner store and they are well stocked!

No, not noticed any shortages in our neck of the woods.

Bluebelle my mouth is watering at the thought of rhubarb and strawberry crumble! ?

Callistemon at least they hadn’t moved the alcohol.

I think it's the shortage of lorry drivers, it was on the news this would happen

No not at all, even plenty of tinned tomatoes, although the press were saying there would be a shortage,. Fruit and veg in plentiful supply, although usually get this from my local market seller , who does home delivery.

Yes sure you will , my friends son has just passed his class 1. Can be excellent wages, but long hours. Still can’t do without them.

Yes, I noticed this today. No watercress in Morrisons. I was in Tesco later and they didn't have any watercress or fresh peas. (first world problems I know!)
Also Soda water is in very short supply for some reason??

There are huge gaps in fresh fruit and veg at both my local Tesco and Waitrose. There is also inconsistent of supply of other items such as yoghurt and my cats' favourite food.

Maybe it's regional? The only supermarket that I've seen with any hint of short supplies (toilet paper, kitchen roll, tissues etc) is Sainsburys and, to be honest, I can't remember a time when I've seen full shelves there since before March 2020. Sainsbury always seems to have big on going problem with stock control.

No gaps at all. No unavailable items in my Sainsburys online shops (apart from Bic biros for some reason ). No shortage of fruit and veg at the local fruit shop and market either.

Watercress delivered today!

Bluebelle I'm going to make a summer pudding with fruit from the garden.

I think we are going to see some price increases. Some haulage companies are giving their drivers big pay rises to try and keep them and someone's going to have to pay for that. It could also lead to a shortage of drivers for rubbish collection and recycling. Councils can't afford to offer the same wages.

Lots of empty shelves and missing items in our local Morrisons and Sainsburys. I also noticed repackaging of items such as courgettes where the items were both smaller and fewer - to disguise shortages I thought. Some prices were breathtaking, such that I stopped and bought more veg plants on the way to ensure our own supplies for later in the summer.

I'm astonished!

Nothing missing from my order and the prices were cheap - in fact, prices are far too cheap to give the farmers a good deal.

Courgettes (organic) from M&S last week were more expensive but excellent.

SueDonim, I’ve often made strawberry and rhubarb crumble at a BiL’s place in France - rhubarb in the garden and very often strawberries that need using up.

Sometimes it’s rhubarb + whatever other fruit is there, or needs using up, so might be peaches, nectarines, apples. Always goes down well anyway.

The shelves were full of fruit and veg in Lidl, the other day. In fact I bought too much!

It’d be interesting to know what areas these shortages are in. We’re in Yorkshire and there seems to be more fresh produce than ever at our local market at the moment. In fact, we’ve been getting amazing plump cherries every week for months at £2 for a big bag. I have no idea where they come from, and neither has the stall holder.

Rhubarb grows really well here, of course. Despite the pies and crumbles, we give loads away from the allotment. Our strawberries are doing really well this year too - I can eat them by the bucketload, so we’ve none of them to spare! Again, the market and local fruit shop have plenty of both.

Apparently there was a shortage of drivers pre-pandemic then:

Peter Kohn runs the A-Class HGV Driving School in Gillingham. He says the problem has been exacerbated by the closing during lockdown of HGV test centres - and the selling off of many sites in recent years.

I went into my local morrisons for the first time in 20 months yesterday and it all seemed well stocked.

Wrt lorry drivers, I remember when I was growing up (I'm in my 40s) my friend's Dad was a lorry driver and they were really quite comfortable compared to a lot of friend group. He got paid quite a lot of money bceause he used to work abroad etc. I wonder at what point haulage companies stopped paying so well? our local one is owned by someone who stood as a UKIp MP

BlueBelle

My mornings work from my allotment no shortages for me ?

those strawberries look marvellous!